British cardinal sparks anger after telling Catholic schools not to encourage children to change sex

Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric has provoked anger by speaking out against children who declare they are changing their gender.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols told an audience of head teachers that pupils may question their identity, but schools could not ignore the sex they were born into.

He said children were not simply individuals who could do as they liked, but were part of a wider community that had ‘firm points of reference’.

In comments which will be seen as a thinly veiled attack on campaigners blamed for promoting transgender ideologies in schools, he also criticised the closed ‘self-selecting world of the like-minded’.

His remarks contrast with Church of England guidance advising teachers that children should be allowed to wear tutus, tiaras or superhero capes ‘without judgment or derision’.

Transgender campaigners said the remarks by Cardinal Nichols were ‘not helpful’. Heather Ashton, of transgender charity TG Pals, said: ‘It is the responsibility of educators to be accepting, tolerant and understanding, and a religious bias should not have any impact on a transgender child’s needs.’

In his speech to London school leaders last month, Cardinal Nichols – the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales – appealed to a ‘common sense of humanity’ to counter a growing individualism in relationships, family life and sexuality.